Court rejects Corrie appeal

A court rejected an appeal from the family of a U.S. activist seeking to sue Caterpillar for its alleged role in her death in the Gaza Strip.

The family of Rachel Corrie, killed at 23 in 2003 during Israeli army bulldozer actions in the Gaza Strip, wants to sue the industrial vehicle company because it sells its bulldozers to Israel.

A three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a lower federal court’s ruling throwing out the case. The court ruled that because the sales are approved by the U.S. government, any such suit is tantamount to unconstitutional court involvement in foreign policy making.

The family was considering an appeal to a broader panel of the 9th circuit or to the Supreme Court, the Forward newspaper reported.